


Little Red

by tigriswolf



Series: comment_fic drabbles [305]
Category: Little Red Riding Hood - All Media Types, Rotkäppchen | Little Red Riding Hood (Fairy Tale)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Serial Killers, Dark, F/M, Gen, POV Outsider
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-06
Updated: 2016-05-07
Packaged: 2018-06-06 18:31:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 592
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6765109
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tigriswolf/pseuds/tigriswolf
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Later, they'll blame it on the trauma of being attacked by a wolf, of finding her grandmother's body.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Title: Little Red  
> Disclaimer: not my characters  
> Warnings: references to violence/death/sexual assault  
> Rating: PG13  
> Wordcount: 590  
> Point of view: third  
> Prompt: Little Red Riding Hood, Red, the Wolf - Red knows how to make it look like the Wolf is the Villain in the story.

Later, they'll blame it on the trauma of being attacked by a wolf, of finding her grandmother's body. Later, they'll ask if maybe the ranger who saved her had perhaps hurt her, and it was hidden by the injuries left by the wolf. 

Later, there will be excuses and explanations, stints in a locked ward, recriminations and accusations. 

Later, there will be a crime spree everyone thinks begins with a teenager shoplifting for attention. 

Later, there will be bodies and blood spread across fourteen states, and more still that no one will ever connect to her. 

Later, it will all be traced back to that wolf attack, to her grandmother's corpse, and despite what everyone finally realizes – 

Her first kill is _never_ attributed to her.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Little Red Riding Hood, little red, _learn to bend learn to swerve// learn to bend learn to butcher_

She won’t talk about it, on the stand or to the lawyer her parents spend the last of their money on or to the psychologists she’s sent to or to the reporters who shout variations of the same questions. She won’t talk about it to her cellmate when she’s finally found guilty or her ward-mates before that or to her partner even before that, the darling man who truly loved her and bled himself dry to prove it. 

She’ll talk about anything except what the world wants to hear from her. 

.

She shoplifts when she’s twelve, two years after she finds her grandmother’s butchered corpse. She survives a wolf attack, is rescued by a kind passerby, spends months home from school trying to recover. 

She talks about it until her throat runs dry, tells anyone who asks, catches and keeps the hearts of an entire nation. She is an adorable child.

She shoplifts at twelve. Breaks into neighborhood homes at fourteen. Carjacks at sixteen. 

Kills a neighborhood boy at seventeen. He is the first anyone will find but his death is ruled an accident. 

There really is no turning back after that. 

.

She wears red, every time. Like the jacket she was wearing, that day in the woods. Red threads are left at most of the crime scenes, so word spreads of _Little Red_. 

At first, of course, everyone is sure they’re hunting a man. 

She makes sure to leave hints until everyone realizes their mistake. 

.

She wears red at the trial. She charms the judge and the jury and the people who come to gawk. 

They’ve found fifteen bodies, spread across fourteen states. She neither brags nor denies. 

No matter what the expert witnesses say, she never did a single thing for the attention. 

.

She killed acquaintances and strangers, men and women, young and old. Stabbing, mostly, with a hunting knife, like the kind that saved her life years ago. That’s the catalyst, doctors and lawyers argue. That’s where everything went wrong for a sweet little girl who grew into a beautiful but broken woman. 

She doesn’t talk about it. No matter how the story is told, she doesn’t talk about it. No matter what the experts argue, what diagnoses are bandied about it, she lets them. 

Her parents are vilified. The man who once saved her life. Even her late grandmother. Everyone is blamed but she is simply too charming to be given death; instead, she is locked away, the smiling Little Red who left a trail of blood nearly from one ocean to another. 

Books are written, screenplays penned, movies planned. Two dueling documentaries are released within five years. 

In hindsight, her parents realize that though a wolf nearly killed her, did actually kill her grandmother, she never once said a thing against wolves.


End file.
